Archive for Share This WIth Friends!
Baking For Good!
I recently came across this amazing website worth sharing. It’s an online bakery called Baking For Good. Here’s what makes this online bakery so unique… 15% of all proceeds made from each order go to charity, AND you can choose which charitable organization (from a HUGE list on their website) that you would like to support. What an awesome concept!
As for baked goods, you have lots to choose from. Iced cookies, drop cookies, brownies, bars, allergy free treats and even event favors. There’s gift boxes, corporate gifts and gift cards as well. Click here to look at the extensive treat list!
I had the opportunity to speak with the CEO of the Company, Emily Dubner a couple weeks back. Turns out she and I had a surprisingly similar background! We both grew up in Massachusetts baking treats for our classmates all through elementary school. Both went to college in Cambridge, MA and graduate the same year. And, we both have a HUGE passion for baking and doing good deeds! I hope at some point to get involved with the company, just because I so believe in the cause and the efforts Emily has put forward. We’ll have to wait and see if this could be a possibility!
So check out the bakery, tell your friends and place an order!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
It’s Almost Earth Day- Eat Cupcakes!
I receive email updates from Sprinkles Cupcakes, the most famous Original Cupcake Bakery of Beverly Hills (now around the entire US). The update today was on a great promotion centering around Earth Day that I thought was worthy of sharing. From today through the 23rd, Sprinkles will donate 100% of the proceeds of their Vanilla Cupcakes to help plant tree and benefit other local Environmental Care organizations. Fab- Treat yourself to a cupcake and treat the Earth to a tree! And not to worry, if you are not in the Beverly Hills area, just order online! For more info on the the promo, click here!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad
Apparently I’ve been doing alot of cooking with vino- and vino is a good thing… And there’s never too much of a good thing!
Weather here in LA has been warming up finally and warm weather makes me seriously crave salads. I threw this salad together earlier this week and thought it was so beautiful and tasty I just had to share it with you. I obviously eat lots of sweets, which makes it so important for me to pay close attention to what I am eating in every other meal. This was filling and satisfying and super healthy. So here’s my Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad recipe.
Ingredients:
-1 lb. thin cut boneless chicken breasts
-1 cup red wine
-1 cup chicken stock
-1/2 cup water
-2 tablespoons dried sage
-2 cups red leaf lettuce- rinsed, dried and chopped
-1/2 cup grape tomatoes
-1 tablespoon goat cheese
-salt and pepper
-Balsamic Vinaigrette, or your fav. salad dressing.
Directions: Combine wine, chicken stock, water and sage in pan- bring to a boil. Salt and pepper the chicken then add to pan. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook chicken 7 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from pan and let rest a couple minutes. Combine lettuce, tomato and goat cheese. Toss in dressing. Slice chicken and top the salad. Salt and pepper to taste! Done!
So easy, so tasty, so healthy! Enjoy!
Happy Baking and Poaching!
-Kristy
Scones and Jam!
This past Thursday night I had another cooking date with my good friend Minh. This time around, I got to do a little baking and teaching. Minh had approached me for some help with creating a gift basket for a friend who was recently engaged. She was including lots of teas, curd and other exciting treats in the basket and wanted to include some jam and scones- a couple things I am well versed in!
We decided to use this recipe for Raspberry Lemon Scones. So there’s a good chance it might have been the 2 bottles of wine we working on, but we made 3 batches- 1 was fab, 2 were alright. The flavor was great in all three batches, but we struggled a bit with the shape and consistency. After thinking about it further yesterday with a non-wine influenced brain, here are a few changes I would make to the recipe: 1. Increase the flour from 2 cups to 2 and a half cups to improve the consistency of the dough– I found it to be a bit too flimsy at times. 2. Add the juice from 1/2 a lemon to increase the lemony flavor. 3. Use fresh, clean and dry raspberries- we used frozen which created far more liquid than we anticipated.
Despite needing a few tweeks, this is a pretty kick-ass scone recipe. My BF and I gobbled up the rest of the busted looking leftovers in just a couple days- which was both a good thing and bad thing! They were, as I said before, super delish and tasty- the combo of the lemon and raspberry was lovely. But having two for breakfast yesterday and today may have been a bit too much! Good thing I did an hour long cardio work out today… and have another scheduled in tomorrow!
Onto the jam- I love jam- my new Cali plates on my car actually say “Jam.” and, I kid you not, I did not request it- it was just a stroke of luck. Anyways, once I started making Jam I realized it was alot easier than I anticipated. I use a recipe that was provided to me by Lisa Baker Morgan, the Chef and owner of Ciao Yummy. Combine 1lb. fruit, 10 oz sugar (I like to use a little less) and 2 tbs lemon juice in a bowl and set in the fridge over night. The next day, add your pectin, and boil down until the jam hold it shape and does not spread on a frozen plate. And Done! So Easy!
We made 3 batches of jam along with the 3 batches of scones- Bruise-Berry Jam (Blackberry and blueberry), Strawberry, and Raspberry-Strawberry. They were beautful! The color of homemade jam is so vibrant and stunning. On top of that, they were obvi super tasty and sooo much better than store bought.
Minh called me this AM to tell me what a huge hit her gift bakset was, which I was super happy to hear. Homemade gift such as these, I think are the most thoughtful and, pardon my nerdiness here, so extra special. I would love to hear about some of the homemade gift some of you readers have given to friends and family- or if you have a fantasticly creative idea, post that as well!
Happing Baking and Jamming!
-Kristy
French Women Eat Pastry…
I am still recovering from my trip and from a very Manic day at work, but was excited to finally be writing this post… my apologies if I am scattered, but I hope you enjoy!
So I have finally (after 2 months too long…) finished reading French Women Don’t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano, the CEO of Clicquot, Inc (they make the awesome Champagne Veuve Clicquot). I absolutely, positively adored this book. Please allow me to explain some of her tips that I found useful and why I loved this book….
1. This is NOT a diet book. (I know… this blog is far from a diet or healthy living blog… just bear with me here!) You all know how much I enjoy my sweets, yet eating healthy is just as important. My life simply would not be complete without cookies, cake or pastry. It is important to me that they are a part of my eating life style. Guiliano makes eating pastry acceptable, guilt-free, and with a little common sense strategies, will not pack on the pounds. If you eat a pastry today, skip the pastry tomorrow and compensate with some extra healthy meals in your day. As I have mentioned before, making healthy choices and eating well is important to me… and Guiliano meshed these two ideas well in an adorable and witty way!
2. Tip: Eat QUALITY not QUANTITY. Yes, sometimes nothing is better than satisfying your chocolate craving by binging on 100 Mini Snickers— but really you will be more satisfied with just one piece of uber high quality dark chocolate or milk chocolate. All the sugars and processed ingredients in the Snicker’s just make you crave it more, and over eat. Personally, I’ll take a decadent piece of 70% cocoa chocolate square any day over a Snickers! This was a simple, straightforward tip that I have heard before… but a friendly reminder is always helpful!
3. Move more and drink more Water and Wine: Take the stairs, always have your water in hand… and don’t forget a spectacular red wine with dinner. Yes, Mireille… I can handle this! (Oh how I love a good Pinot come winter time!)
These are just a few tips, and the book is full of so many more. The premise and overall philosophy is eat good food, drink good drinks and savor every minute of it. I think it was a philosophy i was already trying to live by, and Guiliano clarified this for me. She encourages baking your own bread a pastry, enjoying the fruits of your labor and not over-doing it. She makes it do-able and gets you so excited about your next meal. She has totally inspired me. I am now obsessed with the French culture and have tentative plans for a trip to Paris with my sister. Guiliano also has a second book… French Women for All Seasons and I can’t wait to get it. Overall awesome book… and would make a fab. holiday gift! If you’ve read it already, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Happy Baking and Reading!
-Kristy
This book is a must read.
12 Days of Cookies!
How Exciting! Starting November 30, the Food Network will again begin it’s 12 Days of Cookies Email Newsletter Series! (Sign up by Clicking here!) Many of your Food Network Fav’s will share awesome cookie recipes, stories and of course fab. baking tips for the upcoming holiday season. Click here and you can check out a few holiday cookie videos and see cookie recipes from past years 12 Days of Cookies! I obviously LOVE testing out new cookie recipes, so I am totally looking forward to this! Hope you are too!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Magazines, Books and Blogs!
One great thing about having a website and a blog is that you can pass along info, resources and suggestions. For today’s post, I’ve decided to pass long a few things that I am loving right now. Here they are…
The November Issue of Cooking Light. I freaking LOVE this magazine. When I open up the mail box on that one day a month when it arrives, my day is always made a little bit brighter. This months issue blew me away. I always go through and flag all the recipes I am interested in during my first look through, then go back again and read them all, plus read all the fab articles. Well this month, I swear I flagged majority of the mag! Here’s a couple of the recipes that tickled my fancy… Pecan Pie with Spike Cream, Roasted Butternut Soup with Goat Cheese Toast, Frosted Pumpkin Cake, Baked Brie with Golden Raisin Compotes, Carmel Apple Pie, Vanilla-Bourbon Pumpkin Tart, Satsuma Orange Cheesecake, Cranberry Upside-Down Cake, Pumpkin Ice Cream Torte and a wonderful how-to article on Tempering Chocolate. Okay thats more than just a couple recipes… but shows how awesome this issue is.. go pick up your own copy before they all fly off the shelves!
I recently purchased the book Soda Fountain Classics by Elsa Petersen-Shepelern with photography by Debi Treloar. It’s an adorable book that features the history of and recipes for classic ice cream sundae’s, floats, parfaits, malts, sauces and syrups. The pictures cause some serious ice cream cravings and the dessert recipes are all totally do-able and easy. I am really looking forward to making a classic New York Egg Cream and testing out the Raspberry Sherbet Recipe… Check out Amazon.com to find a copy of the book for yourself as low as $2 for a brand new, hard cover copy! It’s an awesome book, at an awesome price… and makes an awesome gift for the upcoming holidays! Perfect
- Caroline Dines is the blog from one of my BFF’s from college. She and I were pretty much obsessed with food all through school and was for sure one of the things we totally bonded over! Her blog is full of lots of healthy and smart eating tips and recipes, as well as features her adventures of working at a local farm and eating out in the Boston area. I often turn to her blog when I need a great idea on how to change up a simple salad or sandwich, or even to gather idea’s on how to make a favorite dessert guilt-free. It’s so a blog worth reading!
Well I am going to spend the rest of my Sunday evening perusing recipes, blog reading and magazine flipping! Mmm… it will be a delightfully relaxing evening for sure!
Happy Baking and Reading everyone!
-Kristy
Amish Friendship Bread Update!
1. I must apologize for my delay in making posts. My parents are in visiting for 8 days from Boston so I am a bit preoccupied! Posts may be somewhat infrequent this week, but I assure you I will make it up to you… as long as I survive these 8 days! Does anyone else stress over parental visits?!?!
2. Amish Friendship Bread is AMAZING!
So I got up early on Friday morning to make sure I have a enough time to run to the store to pick up the few bread ingredients I needed, bake it and deliver my bags of bread batter to 3 friends. I barely made it to work in time, but it was 100% worth the rush. Once you mix up the dough you dust 2 bread pans with cinnamon sugar, poor in the batter then top with more of the cinnamon sugar. That alone, should have given me the first clue about how amazing this bread was going to. It had to bake for an hour… and it was seriously an agonizingly long hour. My little apartment smelled like a cinnamon bun bakery… it was awesome. Finally they came out of the oven with the gorgeous sugary crust steaming with the sweetest most delicious smell in the world!
I could barley wait the additional 10 minutes for the bread to cool so I could take it out of the pan and snag a little bite. I was probably a bit too eager getting it out of the pan because a couple little pieces broke off, but I had no issue gobbling those right up! OMG… it was just like a cinnamon bun, but in a bread and warm and not sticky… it was seriously delish! It took A TON of self control not to keep breaking off more pieces!
In the idea of friendship, I decided to share my two loafs of bread. I saved one to give to my parents to enjoy for their week visit and the other I brought into work. The loaf I brought into work disappeared in about .02 seconds! To be honest I felt a little badly about that… another staff member had brought in a pound cake that was not moving…I had placed my bread next to the cake in the primary nurses station and as I said, it was gone in seconds! oh well… I can’t help having an awesome reputation at work for making awesome baked goods! BTW…I’ll get my parents review on the bread later this morning!
I really enjoyed making this bread, and wanted to figure out a way to share it with all of you. Since it ’s maybe a bit impossible to send each of you some of the Amish Friendship Bread Starter mixture, I googled the recipes, which you can access by clicking here. One you have your starter made, you can use the recipe I used to complete the bread. To read and print them, click here! So start up a new batch for yourself and you friends!
I thought this whole idea of Amish Friendship bread was really the cutest thing ever. It was the first time I had heard of it and really got so much joy from the experience. I hope my friends that I passed the bags of started dough along too will enjoy it as much as I did. Its really simple and easy, and I think kids could have alot of fun with it too. It’s seriously heavenly! Hope you enjoy making it (and eating it!) as well!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
